Church Of St George

The Church of St George is a parish church dating to around 1370-1390, built principally for Robert Dacey de Ashfield. It was restored in 1855-6 by William White. The church consists of a nave, chancel, west tower, and south porch. It is constructed of flint and limestone rubble with freestone dressings, and features flat roofs behind parapets and parapet gables. There is extensive chequerboard flushwork, used as a frieze at the base, on the parapets and buttresses, and on the south face of the porch. The porch has arcading filled with flushwork on its parapets. Other external features include a series of grotesque gargoyles, and the base of a gable cross. The nave and chancel have very tall, narrow two-light windows, while the east window has complex tracery. The moulded porch doorway appears to incorporate reused mouldings from an earlier 14th-century building, and it retains an original plank door with ironmongery.

Inside the chancel is a shafted piscina and adjacent window seat sedilia, and a further piscina is located in the south nave wall. The nave has arch-braced tiebeam roofs with grotesque corbels beneath the wall-pieces of each truss, and arch-braced square-set purlins with corbels to the tiebeams. A painted canopy of honour is located in the easternmost bay. Remains of a 15th-century rood screen survive, with original paintwork to the framing, and carved figures within the tracery. A roodloft staircase is situated in the north wall. The octagonal limestone font has figures beneath arches on each face of the bowl and a fluted stem. The nave contains fine 15th-century benches with a clapboarded dado, poppyhead bench-ends with tracery below and carved figures on the buttresses. Fine 15th-century choirstalls are also present, featuring high-quality carving including traceried panels and figures on the bench-ends. The misericord seats have complete figure carving. A painting of St Christopher is on the north wall of the nave. C15 stained glass is found in the heads of the nave windows at the west end. A monument to Paul D'Ewes, by John Johnson of London (1624), is located in the chancel, depicting a kneeling figure with his two wives, a son, and seven daughters. Another monument is dedicated to Sir Willoughby D'Ewes (d.1685), featuring an open pediment on twisted columns. A medieval slab in the chancel floor has indents for brass figures and shields. A brass inscription to Paul D'Ewes (1630) is on the north chancel wall. Several 16th and 18th-century floor slabs, some displaying coats of arms, are also present. The church is of outstanding interest due to its closely-dated example of a late 14th-century building.